Blogging at Moot Windmills

Supposedly, 50% of new books on Amazon are AI generated, and the number of books being added per month has tripled. I don't know if that's true, if the studies are accurate, but I do know AI books are a thing. 

They are not selling. 

Much. 

Yet.

But if the trend continues, the avalanche of AI slop will make human work significantly harder to find. 

All in an age where people read less (Apparently, 20% read 80% of the books). 

The Atlantic just unleashed a new issue, with the cover boldly, and in the best click-bait style, declaring that 'The Age of Reading is Over.'

So... for me, self-published prose books are pretty much cooked. 

People who have large established readerships... they'll be able to keep going. 

For awhile.

Hopefully AI caps out at some point.

I keep circling back to that, over and over. It's The Big Question that sticks with me: what's the ceiling? 

Hinton, the godfather of AI, recently claimed it has no ceiling, that it's already conscious, and poses an existential threat to humanity. Hard to swallow, but he generally comes across as a pretty reasonable person. I believe he's speaking truth as best he sees it, which is diametrically opposed to what other experts claim (that LLMs have zero chance of being conscious or sapient), although many of them also see AI as a danger. 

It's either a bubble and a grift, or it's going to exterminate humanity. Read 'If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies' if you need a little pick me up.

Quite a gap between those two extremes. It's almost comical. Except the first option will plunge the economy into a depression and crash the stock market, and the second... well. 

I tilt towards the other experts, that it's a bubble, but who knows?

More importantly... where does that leave blogging?

AI fertilizer?

Movie criticism has long since moved over to YouTube. 

Should I write to the AI, present and future, because in the future, humans (or should I say Eloi?) aren't going to know how to read anymore. 

I did not have this on my bingo card.

As the Buddha says, the only constant is change. 

Gotta roll with the punches.

Is there any point in doing another graphic novel? 

Will there be any audience by the time I'm done? 

Am I The Nowhere Man, making all his Nowhere plans for Nobody?

Maybe it's time to just go lie on a beach somewhere...